Tag Archives: 8860

Lego Technic is 40 years old this year! Launched in 1977 the Technic range took LEGO into a new world of technical detail, providing advanced construction for older children and adults alike, and bringing with it probably the largest range of new parts in the brand’s history.

It all kicked off with a simple car chassis, a ‘New Technical Set’, 853. The single most viewed page here at TLCB, 853 introduced rack and pinion steering, a working piston engine and an operable transmission to LEGO fans. Its success allowed LEGO to develop the theme and three years later the second generation car chassis was released, this time with LEGO’s first attempt at working suspension, 8860.

Despite being LEGO’s second Technic car chassis, 8860 is often thought of as the daddy of all Technic sets, paving the way for the series of Technic Supercars that followed (of which you can read more in the Set Review Library).

With the Technic theme turning 40 years old this year LEGO have decided to pay homage to one of their greatest products, giving builders the chance to recreate the iconic 1980 set using modern parts found in the 2017 Technic range. Three sets, the superb-looking 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure motorbike, the 42061 Telehandler and the 42057 Ultralight Helicopter provide the pieces required, and building instructions are now available* for free online.

Such is the way with the advancement of technology, LEGO’s modern take on the classic 8860 set packs all the functions of the original into a more compact package, and features working steering, a 4-cylinder boxer engine, an operable transmission (which may well be the first since the 1980s not to use purpose-built gearbox parts) and functioning rear suspension. The design uses straight-forward pieces too, so many builders may be able to build it from parts found within their existing collection.

You can read our previews of the three sets that supply the full parts list to build the 40th Anniversary 8860 set via the links above, our review of the original set here, and you can create your very own 40th Anniversary set by clicking the link to the building instructions below.

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With the news that LEGO have designed a new version of their classic 8860 Car Chassis (available via the purchase of three of this year’s new Technic sets), it’s got us wondering what other vintage Technic sets could be re-borne in miniature thanks to the latest studless pieces.

Appie of Eurobricks has been wondering the same thing too, and he’s taken up the challenge by building a small-scale recreation of LEGO’s first full-bodied Technic Supercar, the 8865 Test Car from 1988.

With independent suspension on all four wheels, working pop-up headlights, steering, a miniature V4 piston engine, adjustable seats and a two-speed gearbox, Appie’s little 8865 packs in all the working features of the full size original.

To check out how he’s done it and to view the full gallery of images – including a few showing the model alongside the official LEGO original – make a visit to the Eurobricks discussion forum here.

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Our set review of LEGO’s 1980 Technic 8860 Car Chassis is one of the site’s most popular pages of all time. And for good reason. 8860 is the genesis of Technic Supercars and took the whole concept of large LEGO sets in an entirely new (and brilliant) direction, without which we probably wouldn’t have 2016’s Technic Porsche 911 GT3. OK, perhaps that’s not a great example, but we’d certainly miss 8880, 8448 and many of the sets that followed.

Just thinking about 8860 gets much of TLCB office so wistful and nostalgic it’s like mentioning food rationing to your grandparents. Paul Boratko (aka Crowkillers) hasn’t helped productivity here today then with his wonderful modern interpretation of LEGO’s 1980 icon.

Built using the latest studless Technic parts Paul’s 8860 redux is instantly recognisable, yet upgrades the venerable old set in every key area. Working steering, all-wheel suspension, adjustable seats, and a functioning gearbox hooked up to a flat-6 engine all feature, alongside modern tyres and LEGO’s latest parts designs.

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Welcome to the second in our series of Lego’s big car sets reviews. The year is 1980, and the sophistication of suspension arrives at Lego Towers. Not very brilliant suspension, but we’ll come to that..

First, the build. Still fairly straightforward, and the flaws of it’s 853 predecessor are skilfully dealt with – it’s nice and stiff, the steering works well (provided you’ve put the axle bushes on the right way round…), there was now a differential and it’s definitely sportier than before. Again, the engine is the only fiddly part, but if you set this up right it will run smoothly in all three gears (very fast in the lowest gear, which was intended purely for use with the motor and gets blanked off in the instructions. Leave it open and savour the noise!).

This is a truly satisfying model. The colours look right, there’s enough technical stuff going on and it’s playable. It seems like Lego’s designers made a concerted effort to include all the features they could manage with the pieces then available. Briefly, these include the sliding / reclining seats, the rear-mounted flat four engine with some lovely detailing, a three speed transmission, steering and swing axle rear suspension. This was Lego’s first attempt at a car’s suspension and, like the VW Beetle it resembles, it didn’t work brilliantly – forcing massive camber changes as the springs were compressed. Still, it was a start and better than nothing.

It’s an easy model to modify, too. Adding front suspension with the newer steering links and ball joints is pretty straightforward and, with a little rearrangement of the rear reinforcement there’s space for a pair of ‘+2’ rear seats. You now have something that’s exactly the right size and mechanical layout to build a Porsche 356 body on… this is the sort of thing you can mess about with for hours!

Oddly, the second model – some kind of weirdly scaled dragster – isn’t that good, but it’s easy to build something nice with this very complete selection of parts.

As with 853, the box is nice and solid and beautifully illustrated – although it would have been good to have as many ideas on it as 853’s had. It doesn’t need to be quite so big, either, but I’m nit-picking now….

Overall, this superb set deserves a 10/10 – it might not be flawless but, for the time, it’s deeply impressive and still stands up today as a good-looking, effective model. Get one and you’ll see why it was good enough to sit at the top of the Technic tree for eight years.